Posted By Allergic Living On 2010/12/20 @ 10:39 pm In Celiac Disease | No Comments

People are becoming more actively involved in their health care and the ease of access to information via the internet plays a large role in that.

However, Dr. Carol Semrad, a gastroenterologist and associate professor of medicine at the University of Chicago, says that individuals who suspect celiac disease should get properly tested before going on the gluten-free diet.

“It’s hard to go backward and diagnose celiac once someone has been gluten-free,” she said in an interview with Medill Reports.

Semrad says that the attention being paid to celiac disease in the news lately has driven many with gastrointestinal upset to assume they have celiac and in turn, to avoid gluten. But many things can cause the symptoms associated with celiac disease and the best thing to do is get tested to rule it out.

On the other end of the spectrum, some people are misinformed to think that digestive symptoms must exist in order to have the disease. “That is just not true,” Semrad explains.